Argonaut Journal of the San Francisco Historical Society
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J OURNAL OF THE S AN F RANCI O S C M U S E M AND H I ORICAL S T S OCIETY V OL . 31 31 . N O . 1 . Volume 31 No. 1 Summer 2020 THE ARGONAUT Journal of the San Francisco Historical Society PUBLISHER AND EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Charles A. Fracchia EDITOR Lana Costantini PHOTO AND COPY EDITOR Lorri Ungaretti GRapHIC DESIGNER Romney Lange PUBLIcatIONS COMMIttEE Hudson Bell Lee Bruno Lana Costantini Charles Fracchia John Freeman Chris O’Sullivan David Parry Ken Sproul Lorri Ungaretti BOARD OF DIREctORS John Briscoe, President Tom Owens, Vice President Kevin Pursglove, Secretary Jack Lapidos,Treasurer Joe Barkett Chris O’Sullivan Rodger Birt David Parry Noah Griffin Christopher A. Patz Richard S. E. Johns Edith L. Piness, Ph.D. Brent Johnson Darlene Plumtree-Nolte Rick Lenat Adriene Roche Robyn Lipsky Ken Sproul Bruce M. Lubarsky Paul J. Su James Marchetti Diana Whitehead Charles A. Fracchia, Founder & President Emeritus of SFHS DIREctOR OF EDUcatION AND PUBLIcatIONS Lana Costantini CHIEF DEVELOPMENT OFFICER Darlene Plumtree-Nolte The Argonaut is published by the San Francisco Historical Society, P.O. Box 420470, San Francisco, CA 94142-0470. Changes of address should be sent to the above address. Or, for more information call us at 415.537.1105. TA FC BLE O ONTENTS THE RISE AND DECLINE OF THE GERMAN-SPEAKING COMMUNITY in San Francisco, 1850–1924 by Stefanie E. Williams ..........................................................................................................................6 SUTRO’S SAN FRANCISCO— What’s Left? by William R. Huber ...........................................................................................................................52 WORLD WAR I AND THE UNIVERSITY OF SAN FRANCISCO by Alan Ziajka ......................................................................................................................................72 Cover photo: Adolph Sutro. Courtesy of Sutro Library, California State Library. THE RISE AND DECLINE OF THE GERMAN-SPEAKING COMMUNITY in San Francisco, 1850–1924 by Stefanie E. Williams he German community of San Francisco After the Franco-Prussian War in 1871, a new reached the apex of influence between German Empire was established. A different sense of 1890 and 1914. In a continuing effort to what it was to be a German soon developed, and this leave a permanent and lasting cultural too was felt by the German diaspora living in North Tlegacy, the German immigrants within the city orga- America. At the turn of the 20th century, nothing nized a large number of different social, fraternal, and could stand in the way of the German immigrant’s community organizations. Today, their communal version of the American Dream, a dream in which and economic contributions are visible within the there was plenty of room to cultivate and develop urban landscape of San Francisco through the many an amalgamated German and American way of life. halls, churches, and businesses that were built in This identity would be challenged when the United the German community’s most prominent years. States entered the First World War against the Triple All of the aforementioned are examples of German Alliance (Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy) in immigrants and their descendants continuing to set 1914. Overnight, German-Americans were put on down the framework for a strong, well organized, the defensive, forced to choose between the United and vibrant community, determined to perpetuate States and Germany. the culture and language of their former homeland Ultimately, German-Americans sided with their in a new city. adopted homeland. Within just a few short years, the Many of the first German pioneers to settle in anti-German war hysteria of the time had resulted in San Francisco arrived in the years following the a process of accelerated assimilation. Much of what Gold Rush. During the second half of the nineteenth had made up German life in America went into a century, the German element of San Francisco full retreat, and never fully recovered. had grown into the largest non-English-speaking To gain a better understanding of the German population living within the city. These people community in San Francisco between 1850 and found themselves with increasing economic and 1924 it is important to have an idea of what the social influence beyond their community, and many German-American position was demographically German immigrants and their children developed a during those years. Immigration from Europe to common identity— a cross cultural blend of both the United States between 1820 and 1900 resulted German and Anglo-American influences. Their in more than 20 million immigrants arriving on ability to maintain this identity can be seen through American shores.1 Beginning in the 1840s and a rich social life that was organized around a variety continuing over the course of the next eighty years, of associations (Vereins) and churches. some 5,335,000 Germans settled in both urban and THE ARGONAUT, VOL. 31 NO. 1 SUMMER 2020 6 Eleven-year-old German Boy Erick Leiszner, who smuggled himself on to the steamer Lake Fray at Hamburg, is now at Hull. He told the captain that he wanted to leave Germany, as his parents were destitute; and that he had an uncle in San Francisco, which he thought was about a day’s walk from New York. 1919. Courtesy of the author. rural communities throughout the country. By 1850 of 1848, or the Forty-Eighters. Having faced the the number of Germans immigrating to the United failure of the democratic reform movements in States surpassed even that of the Irish, with 952,000 Germany in the year 1848, many of these political Germans settling in America from 1850 to1860 exiles fled to the United States to avoid persecution. alone.2 This assemblage of mainly intellectual elites was a Among the many thousands of Germans who minority within the German immigrant community; arrived during the late 1840s and early 1850s was a around 10,000 would leave for the United States.3 relatively small, but culturally significant, group of The great majority of German immigrants coming political refugees that historians call the Generation to America at this time were from small towns and 7 villages. They had left their homeland with the idea For the Germans, this meant that many had arrived of improving their circumstances economically and from well-established older German communities in without political limitation. the Midwest and the Northeast. After 1869, when This increase in German immigration occurred the Transcontinental Railroad was completed, the as the Gold Rush was taking place in California. On United States was better able to facilitate a west- January 24, 1848, gold was discovered by James W. ward expansion. This provided an opportunity for Marshall at John Sutter’s Mill in Coloma, California. immigrants living in the Midwest and on the Eastern People from all over the country, and around the Seaboard to travel easily by train to California. world, set off for the Far West with hopes of striking By 1880 Germans made up 20.8 percent of the it rich. Carl Blümner, a German immigrant from foreign-born population of San Francisco and this Freisack, a town in Brandenburg, describes his number was steadily growing.6 German immigration journey toward golden opportunities Out West in to the United States had reached a historic peak, a letter to his mother: with more than 1.4 million Germans arriving in America during that decade. Yet it was not until I am sure you have read in the public papers 1900 that a significant increase in the German about the immense gold mines that have been population became apparent on the Pacific Coast. discovered in California in the last 11/2 years, According to the U.S. Census report for 1890, namely on the Sacramento River and the California’s German-born population was the largest small tributaries, where gold sand stretches of any of the western states, with a total of 72,449 along the banks, and many miles into the in- people born in Germany. The disbursement of terior, that can be washed and cleaned easily German-born populations living in the major cities of and without much work. It is very lively here California was: San Francisco, 26,422; Los Angeles, in the big cities on the coast. Here you hear 2,767; Oakland, 2,301; and Sacramento, 1,583. people speaking English, Spanish, German, San Francisco had become the most important and French, Polish, Italian, and many different influential city in the state. It was also the nucleus of Indian languages. All are going to the Far German life on the West Coast.7 Combined with the West to dig for gold.4 increased numbers of Germans settling in the city, This perception of “easy access” to riches created there followed a measurable growth in their social, not only a mass migration within the United States cultural, and economic influence during the years to California, but also contributed to the large boom leading up to World War I.8 in the foreign-born populations, as indicated by San Francisco has always been known for its the variety of languages Blümner heard during his diversity. In 1890 the City by the Bay had the largest travels. proportion of foreign-born residents of any city in By 1860, the foreign-born population in the United States. At that time a full 40 percent of California spiked to 38 percent of the total popu- the population had been born in another country. lation, with thousands of immigrants arriving from Large numbers of Irish, Germans, Italians, French, many different countries. The German contribution and others had come to call San Francisco their new to the foreign-born population ranked as the third home. Within these national groupings established largest in the state, just behind the Chinese (34,935) linguistic and regional diversity often existed. Among and the Irish (33,147), with 20,919 Germans living Europeans, perhaps no group was more diverse than in California in 1860.5 According to Robert W.